The High School Dropout Who Built a $23M Business

There's no water in this lake. They completely drained it. I mean, my heart sank. What did I just do? Like, you had no bad boat selling habits cuz you never sold boat. 100%.

Right. It's like, actually, we're kind of building it while we're flying here. The boat that we have sitting on the showroom floor, it's unique in the sense of there's not another one out there. How do you start building momentum at this dealership sold eight boats a year? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Who's Your State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.

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Keller and Keller right here for Indiana when it matters most. Now, let's get back into the episode. My guest today is J Hurless and he is the co-owner of Reeder Trous Marina, an Indiana based boating dealership and service company that has expanded significantly through acquisitions and community engagement. Before entering the marine industry, J built experience in automotive retail and leadership roles and later co-acquired Denny's Marina in Indianapolis to grow the company's footprint. He's also involved in industry leadership initiatives including participation in the Marine Retailers Association of America's Young Leaders Advisory Council. Today we're going to be talking about how how they found a niche in Marine, how they took a local family business and helped just pour gasoline rocket fuel on this thing.

And J has an incredible story of resilience, of determination, of great. This is going to be a great episode for any entrepreneurs out there that are looking for a little inspiration of, you know, no matter what the circumstances are, you can make big things happen. J, welcome to the show. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. I got to give credit where credit is due.

Shout out to my guy Chad Sellers. He made this intro and said, "Dude, there's there's this company out in Rockville doing big things in the boating industry that you need to know about." And as I dug in, did some research, learned a little bit, like the the run you guys have been on is insane. For perspective for the listeners out there, where was Reeder Trous at when you guys first, you know, got involved in the boating industry? Reeder Trous Marine was technically founded in 1996 uh by a gentleman named Larry Reer and another gentleman named Scott Trous. And so they went into business together.

Um Larry's daughter ran the books. Scott uh worked on the boats. Larry helped sell them and store them. Um and you know from from there they just uh were steady Eddie kept the business going and it was just a great family business. Yeah. Um so you know fast forward 2018 uh me and my partner Monty Anderson uh purchased the dealership from Larry Reer.

Scott Trous had uh since then moved on. Um and yeah, I mean from there it's like just writing history. Uh clearly if you're going to buy, you know, a boat, do you call a boat dealership? A marine, a boat dealership, you clearly must have had tons of experience in marine, like you grew up around boats on the lake. You grew up selling boats, being in the business, right? Yeah.

Not at all. No, no, no, not at all. No. I bought my first boat back in 2013. Um bought another boat uh brand new in 2015 from uh the dealership that we actually now own as well. Okay.

Um, and my business partner did grow up around boats, was big into boats, you know, he was uh I grabbed him by the the shirt collar and said, "Dude, you're doing this with me." And so he was there along the uh alongside of me the whole way um from when I got my first boat to my second boat, boating with me, helping me maintain my boat, all those things. Okay. So, you were a consumer, but you did have sales chops like you before you bought into and acquired Reeder Trous, you had grown up, you know, kind of being a hustler. If I if I get the story correctly, like you know your path to entrepreneurship is not the same that you know a lot of paths are. This is a very uncommon path to end up you know building a big business.

I mean what were you a sophomore or junior in high school and your path kind of diverged from the average high school kid? Yeah. Yeah. So I think I was uh um a super junior with freshman credits whenever I dropped out of high school. Um just kind of took off running. Money was the game.

Hustling was was what I knew. So, uh, when I turned 19, um, I was able to land a a a career path over at, uh, Ray Skilman in the automobile industry and, um, just kind of took off from there. So, one, I think that the odds of anyone that drops out of high school succeeding in anything, the chips are already stacked a little bit against you. Like, when you like, what was the plan? Was it like I'm I'm dropping out cuz I'm rebelling against my parents or I'm dropping out like what was what was the thought process that led you to make that huge life decision? You know, I was money focused and not necessarily career driven, but I knew that I wanted to do big things.

I knew I wanted nice things at the time. Like that was my focus. So, I knew in order to do that, I was going to have to go out and make money. And digging my head into books was just not for me. Um I was not the greatest kid in the world whenever it came down to academics. Um and so you know what I knew was the right path for me was not books.

Okay. So what was the first entrepreneurial endeavor that you were like okay you know or was it just like I'm going to straight to work for someone before you landed at Race Gilman? Yeah. No that's a great question. Like I was just odd jobs here and there. I knew I wanted to get into sales.

I had buddies in sales that were doing really well. Um, you know, it was really just odd jobs until I could lay in that sales job. Okay. And then from there, I just got my toe in the water and then I jumped all the way in. So, you're 19, you get a job at Ray Skilman, and what helped set you apart from, you know, the average car salesman? Like, what got you on this path of of success in sales?

You know, I I don't know necessarily one thing over the other than just first one there, last one out. Um, determined to to figure out how to get a car sold every day. You know, I went in on my day off. I worked every single day off. Um, and I just had this vision that I wanted nice things. And so, you know, I knew in order to do that, I had to accomplish I had to, um, you know, go through this endeavor of just bettering myself from a communication standpoint, um, from a serving people standpoint, and that's exactly what I set out to do.

Wow. Okay. How long did you end up working at Skilman? From 19 to 28. I bought my dealership at 28. Okay.

So, you're there for almost a decade. Yeah, that's right. Go. And are you like kind of working into management or Yeah. So, um I was one of the uh younger uh business managers. So, I sold for about 13 months before I uh worked my way into the business office and I think I was 20 years old whenever I uh moved into management and then bought my first home and then just went off from there.

Was there a little bit of a a chip on your shoulder slash like I mean you're 20 years old and you're getting promoted and you're like in the business office like but you're also not a high school graduate like did you have any sort of like I don't know fear or just like how do you convince people to follow you you know through this journey? Yeah. You know I think that was just leading with empathy. said it right. Like I was 20 years old and I had people that I worked alongside with that were, you know, double um even triple my age and um but I don't think that they saw it as that and I know that I never saw it as that. I never quite let it get to my head.

Um but I would say that there were some very humbling moments. What advice would you have for young people that might find themselves in a leadership role for people that are older than them? I think that is a big point where it's like, you know, people can have in intrinsic motivation. and they can be like all out hustlers. But the first time that you have to like, you know, lead a team and you're the youngest person on the team that is a little scary and there's like a lot of, you know, could be anxiety, could just be like imposttor syndrome of like, do I belong in this room? Like I I don't know.

Like I can sell a bunch of cars, but telling a 60-year-old that's like 5 years from retirement like, "Hey man, you got to like up your game a little bit." Like that can be a challenging conversation. Yeah. Well, I think accountability can be challenging no matter how you look at it. no matter what age of person that you're leading. I think one of the things that helped me along the way is not looking at that 40-year-old or that 60-year-old as that they're beneath me.

They're alongside me. And I learned a lot from those people. Um cuz those people uh maybe that you are leading still have a lot of experience that you don't even begin to think of yet. Yeah. I mean, they've sold, you know, you dozens, 10x more cars. You know, you think about they've had a career in selling cars for 20, 30, 40 years.

It's like, oh, dude, they've done this. But then you also have to keep your eye on like, well, what does the modern seller look like? What does the modern buyer look like? How are you, you know, some some dealerships lean into social media? Other ones are like, you might be cold calling, sending out direct mail. Like, there's a lot of modern practices that help Race Gilman or whoever might be in the car dealership space be and continue to be at top of mind.

I mean, I think that's uh I that's a delicate balance. So, you're rais rising through the ranks. Talk about there's humbling moments. You're leading teams. You were like, is there a what is like your pinnacle like position that you hold within Skilman? For the majority of my career was a uh as a business manager.

I spent some time in sales management. Uh I spent a short stint as a general manager of a Hyundai store. Um and it was just, you know, all uh experience, you Yeah. Where did you get the itch of like, okay, this is good. Like, you know, you're doing well. You have a house.

You're like, you're you're beating the odds. You know, you talk about, you know, the adversity type part of, you know, dropping out of high school and going into this, but where do you decide like, hey, I might be built for something bigger. I might be built for something different than the car salesman, the car industry path. Yeah. I would say about halfway through my career, I I I kind of had that itch anyways. And I I knew that there was more to what I was capable of than what I was doing.

So, um you know, from there it was just getting that mindset of okay, can you will you go out and take the risk and go do the things that most people aren't willing to do. And um you know, there were just uh some things that just kind of played out within my personal life that said, you know what, let's get this done. I'm going to go make a leap into entrepreneurship. How do you land on Reeder Trous in and getting into the marine industry? I had my first boat that was actually a tradein at the dealership. Got into boating.

Uh really uh understood that it was a it was a new passion of mine. I like finer, nicer things. So, I was like, "Hey, you know what? I'm going to go out and get a new boat. Um went and bought a new boat from, like I said, a dealership that I now own." Um and and it wasn't a bad experience.

It was just an experience where I thought, man, there's just so much more to this that could be had. Like, take me through what the your first experience buying a new boat, which is a large investment of any boat, whether it's like the freaking $10 million yacht or the $120,000 speedboat or whatever it like. It's still a large investment at any scale. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, this this investment I think was in the, you know, $45,000 range. And um I think I just annoyed the hell out of these guys. I mean, there became a point where I would sneak in the front door. I would, you know, kind of tiptoe back there and then climb into the boat. Um, because I I just wanted to go spend time on that boat. And I knew that these guys were probably frustrated with me cuz I hadn't made a decision yet.

I was just in there, you know, feeling, touching the boat, taking my time. Um, so, you know, through that process, I bet you that process was 3 weeks and I bet you I was in that dealership for probably 30 hours before it was all said and done. No way. Okay. And and where along the path did you say like, "Oh, there could be better touch. This could be a better customer experience that like maybe could have gotten your three weeks down to one week and you would have felt confident and in control coming out of there with a boat."

Educating me. Um I was a boater, but I really didn't know enough. You know, I knew how to get on the water. I knew how to have a good time with all my buddies out on the water. Right. Um but that's my favorite part of boating.

That's exactly right. Um but as far as like all the ins and outs of a boat, I didn't know it. That's why I had my, you know, not at the time, but my buddy, but my business partner now, he he was that guy. He was not there with me purchasing this boat. Yeah. Um Well, because I feel like it's uh for first time Boers or first time brand new like it's one $45,000 large purchase.

Second, like what does like the main the maintenance cost always scares me where it's like you have to pay X amount to store it and X amount to like winterize it and then you have to pay to get it ready and like there are all these things that are kind of like the mystique behind boats where it's like well unless you have a large sum of money and you're just like willing to throw whatever at it. It's like h I don't know if it's like an affordable thing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a that's a great question uh or a great statement because I I still didn't know. I had no idea and nobody educated me through that process.

Um, and I look back at like the day that I picked it up and it was like, "Yep, here's the keys. Here's where you turn the battery on. Here's how you put the cover on. Have a great day." And the first time I put that boat in the water and I backed it off the trailer. Boat wouldn't start.

Boat wouldn't start. It was windy. I was being pushed over to the rocks. Luckily, there was a uh fisherman out there that saw me, came and grabbed me, drugged me back over to the rocks. You know, I'm calling the dealership trying to get somebody on the phone. you know, they're telling me to well, look at this and try that and do this.

And it was just, man, that that sinking feeling of like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I spent all this money. I'm so frustrated. I just wanted to go out in the water for the day and I can't even get this thing running. I think that story keeps a lot of people on the sideline when it comes to boats. That's exactly It's like, oh, you know, do I want to go through that?

And a little bit like joke about backing a boat into the water. It's like, dude, that I've I've done it like three times and it's like every time my heart rate kind of spikes a little bit. It's like, all right, don't everyone's watching you. Sometimes there's like a lineup of like other boats trying to get in after you and you're like, you feel rushed. Don't mess this up. Don't mess this up.

Don't mess this up. And it's like totally and it's like and it's like a you know what, instead of doing that, I'll just keep a lot of friends with boats. Yeah, so they can be the ones that do it. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of anxiety behind that, right? And so if you don't know what you're doing, you don't have any experience in what you're doing.

Um, it could be very easy to get into boating thinking one thing and get right back out and think I'm I'm selling this thing. I'm put a pull in. What's the return policy? Right. Yeah. There isn't one.

Yeah. Yeah. So, that was 2015 when you bought your first boat or you bought your first new 14. Okay. And then over the next four years, where does the opportunity to leave automotive and get become a business owner, how does that story end up coming to be? Yeah, some things changed in 2017.

I had bounced from one store to another at um Ray Skilman uh for um just where they needed me to plug and play. Um I'd really been doing some soularching. Um some things in my personal life has had recently changed, some relationships, and um you know, I just kind of had this, you know, epiphany of like if I'm going to do it, like let's just do it. So I started looking. I started looking at, you know, uh warehouses. is I started looking at commercial real estate for sale.

Um I'm a big uh Lake Monroe, Bloomington, Indiana, IU, the whole thing, right? And that's where I go boating. So, I was really looking down in that area. And I remember as I was doing my Google searches and all the things, I found this boat dealership for sale. And I thought to myself, like, well, I never even thought of that, right? And so this boat dealership was like two hours away in this little town and wasn't really what I was looking for, but it it gave me this like, huh, I bet you there's other boat dealerships for sale.

So, um, I took to the internet looking for boat dealerships for sale. I found one in Little Rockville, Indiana, and um, you know, hit up my buddy and said, "Hey, we got to go check this thing out." Okay. So, you find it on the internet and it was for sale at the moment. Yeah. Okay.

And you guys drive out there to shake some hands, kiss some babies. That's right. Okay. First time you show up, like, give me your first impression of Reeder Trous. Yeah. It was like, uh, okay.

Um, well, we got a lot of cleaning to do, but I think there's some good bones. And when you buy a boat dealer, what are you actually acquiring? Like, is it a physical property? Is it a brand? Is it inventory? Those are great questions.

A little bit of everything. Um, it all depends on how you work out the deal. But in this in this particular case, it was the commercial real estate. Um some parts and accessories inventory. There were some, you know, six or seven boats uh eight boats sitting on the showroom floor. Um no used inventory.

Now, six or seven boats on the the showroom floor, is that like finance? Like do you get a line of credit? Because I feel like that's the thing that we've learned with automotive. It's also like, well, if the bank, you know, you can buy this stuff, but if you don't have the the the credit to put inventory on your floor, you're not going to sell any boats. Yeah, that's exactly right. So, it's a line of credit um through, you know, big box lenders and um this gentleman had that relationship.

I did not. Um and that was that's a whole another story. Oh, yeah. Where it's like, yeah, congrats. You have this. There's six boats.

You can make some money off those, but like good luck getting I mean know if you think about know you know you probably need a couple million bucks at least in like uh in access to capital to like get stuff. I mean we've had again like all the whether it be car dealerships, whether it be boats, whether you know anything like that. It's they're not just like saying, "Hey, I'm giving you 70 grand for this truck that I'm going to sell for 90." It's like it's all through financing. That's right. And that ends up being a thing where you don't always think about going into the business like oh what kind of access to capital do we have?

So how long from the first time you stepped foot at the that Reeder Trous to purchasing it? What was that timeline? First stepped in um I would say November and we closed March 23rd 2018. Okay. Yeah. So, like, you know, four months and you were like, and were you constantly like were you doing due diligence and soularching or was it just like that's what it takes to do, you know, to get a deal done?

Yeah, I'll be honest with you. I had no idea what I was doing. Uh, there was very little due diligence and I think that's what it took to um negotiate a deal and um make it to the closing table. I mean, it was like what what did revenue or what did like inventory out the door like? How how much were they selling a lot of boats? Yeah, great question.

No, they were not. Um, he ordered eight boats every year, four from one manufacturer, four from another. Um, he he uh paid for four out of his own pocket. He financed the other four out of one of those big box floor plan companies and he sold those eight boats. When season came back around, he ordered another eight boats. So, in 2017, um, he did $375,000 for the business.

Okay. So, you do 375, you know, you make a a Rockville lifestyle. You're like not doing bad. You know, you probably you're hanging out. It's a family own the property been there forever and it was him and his daughter. So two people like yeah you're probably chilling you know u and if you're towards the end of your career like the idea of going and growing a huge company or like or buying more inventory than you need and having to figure out marketing it's like no we know like every 10 like we have probably a list of 100 customers or whatever and every 10 years or 5 years they're going to cycle out their old boat cycle in a new boat and they'll come here because we'll see them at church in the fish fry.

That's right. Okay. So, you acquire this and it's you and a business partner. Yep. And did you guys have to move to Rockville? Like how Cuz the other piece I'm always curious about is you're an outsider.

You're not one of them. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great story. So, when I when I first um when I first developed the plan of how I was going to do this and taking my entire life savings and every penny I had, um, you know, equity from my home and all the things I was going to do to get it done. And my girlfriend at the time is my wife now.

you know, I told her, I said, you know, in order to get this done, like there was a house on the property. I said, we're going to have to move to the house. Like, I mean, we're just going to have to do it because I'm not going to have a paycheck for a long time. Uh, luckily, I lived well below my means, but it still didn't matter. I still had bills and all the things. And so, the second visit, the owner who went to Florida for 6 months out of the year, um, he, uh, flew back in from Florida to meet us.

And then, uh, I brought my, uh, girlfriend and then my my partner and his wife at the time. We were walking through the house and you know I could just see the look on on my girlfriend's face and I think it was that night or the night before she just started balling. I mean just crying and not wanting to move out there. And I said, "Okay, let me figure this out." I went back to the drawing board and I was like, "Look, here's the deal. You don't pay any anything towards our bills right now.

If you pick up a couple bills, then I think that we could we could ride this out for like n I don't take any equity from the house. We just keep moving. We can ride this out for eight or nine months and hopefully by then I'll be making some money. No way. Yeah. So you don't end up having to move to Rockville?

Don't move to Rockville. But do you I mean there was probably some nights you're like, "Hey, having a house in the property is not bad." It's like like we thought about it. Never. Never stayed there. Never.

No. Wow. No, we hardly ever used it other other than the remodel on the bathrooms. We used the the house as a as a portallet. We used it for the restroom and then once the remodel was done and we were looking to expand, we tore the house down. Dude, what was that commute?

It was an hour and a half. It's an hour and a half. An hour and a half each way every day. Every day. Holy smokes. Okay, so here's the question now.

You get the deal. Like, were there moments that you thought the deal was going to fall through? Oh, there were several moments. Yeah, there were several moments. When we first walked the property, the deal was everything's included, right? and they had this side by side sitting in the garage.

And so, you know, we're going through the deal and all the things and and I asked about, you know, hey, what year is the side by side? And the realtor, the the broker said, well, well, it doesn't matter cuz it's not included. And I said, well, I was told everything was included. And they said, well, the sideby side's not included. I said, well, the deal's off. And so, we went two or three weeks without even talking to the uh seller because of the side by side.

Because of the side by side. And so, and why? Like, what was the thought process behind like making a a big deal about the sideby side? So, I didn't need the side by side, but I needed capital and I had already called around and I' I'd gotten um I'd gotten buy bids on the side by side, like 3,500 bucks. And so, 3500. I knew that $3,500 was going to be detrimental to having working capital for the business.

And so, you know, it was two or three weeks they called me and said, "Hey, um, you know, they're going to do it. You can have a side by side." And the and the coolest part about that story was is we're at the closing table with the uh with the seller and his wife. And um I remember thinking like one of the first things on my list was to get the side by side out of there and get my four grand or whatever. And we sign all the paperwork and the wife pulls out her purse and she gets out her checkbook and she says, "How much for my side by side back?" And I looked at her and I said, " $9,000."

And she wrote me a check for $9,000. Bro, what? And I'm like, we walked out of there and like just stoneface and we get in the car and I look at Monty and Monty looks at me and we just start dying laughing. I'm like, dude, we got 9,000 bucks. Like, what are we going to do with this? No way.

Yeah, it was so cool. That is a I mean, hey, now you got working capital. Absolutely. Yeah. We went from two grand to We thought we were going to have six and now we got 11 and it's like we were on top of the world. Let's go.

Okay, so they give you the keys. Yeah. What's the first thing you have to do? Like is it this is March so you're about to be in season? Oh dude, this is wild. So we close at 3:00 on a Friday.

And so um Saturday morning I'm like hey I'm going to we're going to head out there and just assess the situation, dive right in. Um we were keeping the office manager which was Larry's daughter. She was going to be there and we hadn't been out there in a while. We hadn't been out there really in months I don't believe. And so we're driving across the bridge on Raccoon Lake. And I look over to my left and I look over to my right and there's no water in this lake.

They completely drained it. And I remember I don't even know if I said it out loud, if he was with me. I said it to him or I just said it to myself and I thought, "What did I just do?" And I I mean my heart sank. There was no water in the lake. No water.

They drain it all the way back to the dam cuz it's a flood control reservoir and that's just what it was. They drain it every year. It's wild. You're going out there. Yeah. To buy to like start working on your boat dealership on a lake with no water.

That's right. Yeah. Okay. So, you're like, so you get there all in. And like what do you do? How do you start selling boats?

Yeah. So, that's a great question. I I remember getting there and what year is this, by the way? Sorry. This is 2018. 2018.

And I remember getting there and so I sat down with Stephanie, who was our office manager at the time. And it was the first conversation that I had with her on a Saturday. And I said, "Look, I'm not I don't have a paycheck. Monty doesn't have a paycheck, but I don't know that I can sleep at night knowing that somebody works with me or for me for $10 an hour. So today, you're going to make $150." And she was very appreciative cuz her dad was paying her $10 an hour.

Yeah. And um and I said, "So so tell me like what what all are you doing this time of year?" this. She goes, "Well, we're getting geared up and we got our storage customers." And the phone starts ringing. Um, but mostly during the winter, she just sat there and if the phone rang, it rang.

She answered it. She had TV on the wall. She watched soap operas. She came and gone as she pleased. Yeah. Yeah.

There wasn't a lot going on in Rockville, India. Yeah. I mean, and it's March. You're It's like, you know, you get the storage and you're holding on to some boats and you're like, you know, collect your your mailbox money and get ready for when there's water in the lake again. That's right. So, how do you start to build positive momentum?

Because I think a thing with startups is even if you're not necessarily winning with checkbook and people you're not making a ton of money, momentum matters. Yeah. So, how do you start building momentum at this dealership that sold eight boats a year? Yeah. So, at that point, I'm like, you know, in my mind, I was doing anything I could to bring a revenue dollar in because I just knew that it was a fight or flight. I've got a mortgage on this place.

I've got an employee. Like, what can I do? Right? So, um but the place was just the place was dirty. The place was nasty and it was embarrassing. So, um first two weeks I was on my hands and knees.

I took everything off the shelf. I wiped everything down. I wiped down the shelf. I put it all back on. Um I started answering the phone myself, not having her answer the phone to introduce myself. Uh we sent out a letter to all of our storage customers and uh any other customers that we had in their handwritten database and just let them know that hey, you know, we're under new ownership and you know, some things are going to change, but they're going to change for the better.

Was were you wellreceived in Rockville at the beginning? No. Okay. No. And was there a way that you worked to bridge that? Yeah.

Yeah. So, um I heavily got involved in the community. Um, you know, I, um, got on with the Chamber of Commerce and started getting to know local business owners. Yeah. Um, just, you know, getting to know the customers. Um, and, you know, just looking to not be that outcast of the two guys from Greenwood, Indiana.

Yeah. What was the first dollar that you guys made? Like when did you get a dollar through the door after buying this boat dealership? Yeah. So, that's a great question. So, at that point, you know, all friends and family, they're excited.

So, I had friends and family coming out, you know, buying a battery for their lawn mower. You know, we had a filling station. So, uh it we could fill propane um like physically fill it. Not like you go to the gas station, you drop off one and pick up another. Like this had a weigh station on it and you literally filled up the tanks. Um so, you know, we just, you know, ran dollars to the cash register.

Yeah. Like, you know, odds and ends. It's like you're you're definitely like losing money driving to Rockville to buy a battery for your lawn mower. But good friends to have. Yeah. Take me through the first season.

Your first season owning a boat dealership. Again, previous year you you do eight boats. That's what was sold. You buy four. Like what did getting the right inventory look like and how did you start to tip the scales in your favor? Yeah.

So that's a great question. So first thing I did uh within the first couple weeks is I pulled all the boats out of the showroom. Um wiped them down. I brought them in one by one. I took photos with my um iPhone. Uh we had launched a website luckily even before we had closed on the dealership and before they didn't have a website.

They didn't have a website. No. Okay. So that's also a way to identify opportunity. That's right. There are some decentsized local businesses that don't have a they don't have a web presence at all.

I especially in 2018, you know, I feel like now this is a whole thing like find find old school businesses that don't have websites and it's like it's 2026 like a lot of places have gotten something stood up. But, you know, eight years ago, yeah, for sure you get a website going. Amazing. Yeah. So, we got the boats online. Um, you know, I had a couple storage customers call me, "Hey, we didn't use the boat last year.

We want to get rid of it." That type of thing. U matter of fact, uh, the first boat that I sold was a used boat out of storage. And I remember when I took over the business, they they lived in the house for 2 weeks um because they had bought another house. They lived on property. They bought another house, but they hadn't closed on it yet.

We agreed to let them live there for 2 weeks. So Larry would come over and he would answer questions for me. And I said, "So what what do you do to find out what these boats are worth, right? There's no, you know, with cars, you just go online and you can, you know, go on to NADA or JD Power." And there just really wasn't anything like that for boats. And he had two big blue books.

And he's like, "Yep, this one's for boats. This one's for trailers and motors." And you just flip to the book, you find the boat, and this is what it's worth. So this guy calls me from storage. He says, "Hey, we want to get rid of the boat. You know what's it worth?"

I get the two books out and I I remember I said, "Hey, I think you're going to be around $7,000." And he says, "Well, that's a little low, but we would do that." I get the boat out of storage. I take photos of it within a day. I get a phone call. The guy comes and buys it.

And um I remember I sold it for uh $9700. And the guy gives me all $100 bills. I was so excited. I remember, you know, getting money and said, "Hey, dude. We just made our first two grand." Like, it was just like, it was so cool, right?

And so, I'm like, "Well, I got to get the title." So, I called the customer and the customer says, "Yeah." I talked to my wife and there's just no way we're going to sell that boat for seven grand. And I'm thinking, "What did I just do? I just took this guy's money. I got a receipt.

This guy's thinking he's picking up the boat on Friday. I got no titles. I got no cover for the boat. And now the customer's telling me they don't want to sell it." So, um, that was very unique. Uh, it was my first challenge being a bow dealership owner.

Um, I spent some time on the phone with the customer over the next couple of days. Ended up getting them a little bit more money. We made a little bit less and we made the transaction work. But it's a really cool story on the first boat that we sold. Yeah. And I mean, you're also like celebrating and then you're like kind of put your feet to the fire of like, oh yeah, by the way, we're not doing that.

Gut punch. You're like, can I find a win? Like, can I what do I got to do to find a win? But you're resilient. You keep going. That's right.

So, you start to sell some boats out of storage. Then you start to put boats up online. So, are you getting people like what's the radius of people coming to Rockville to buy boats? Yeah. So, at that point, um you know, my first my first sale was a guy out of Illinois. And um it's so funny.

The guy's probably bought eight or nine boats from us. He just bought one last week um from us. Who needs eight or nine boats? Well, you know, this guy does. Um hell yeah, bro. So, um, so yeah, I mean that's just what I did and I started working through those eight boats.

Um, and then at that point it was like, "So, how do we get more of these?" You know, we had no lines of credit. We had no So, I'd reached out to the floor plan lender that had the original four boats. And so, they that was extremely challenging. You know, it doesn't matter how good your credit score is. You know, they want to know how long have you worked there before you bought it?

How long were you in the boat business before you bought this one? And the the answer to all those questions were no. They didn't want to give me any money. Um so we were Do they even want to after you sold the first four, you sell four of their boats that they lended, you know, like on credit, you sell those. Do they even want to give you four? when I was having those conversations um and they found out that uh there were new owners that they were out of trust with their floor plan and they wanted to come get there were two boats left and they actually physically wanted to come get them because those boats were not loan to me.

They were loan to a guy that was no longer here and they did not want to give me a line of credit to take on those two boats or anymore. Wow. So, how do you how do you balance that? How do you find a way through? Monty, my business partner, his uncle's neighbor happened to be a sales rep for Rinker Boat Company. And so he came out and talked to us and he said, "What would you guys think about selling Rinkers?"

And I said, "Well, that sounds like a great time, but we don't have any money." And I am having a struggle getting money from any of these floor plan lenders. He says, "Well, let me make a couple phone calls." So, you know, a couple weeks goes by. He says, "Hey, I got you guys all hooked up. got you a line of credit, 200 grand, but it is only on Rinker Boat Company.

We got our first Rinker boat in. We went to our first dealer meeting with a pontoon manufacturer to order boats. And our sales rep at that pontoon manufacturer says, "You guys don't have a line of credit. You can't buy any boats." And I said, "Yeah, well, I got a line of credit over at XYZ Bank for 200 grand." I said, "But it's it's just for Rinker."

and he said, 'Well, let me see what I can do. That that floor plan lender is actually here at this show. And so I met with them and by the end of the show, I had the 200 grand moved over to the pontoon manufacturer. Well, 3 weeks later, we went to Rinker to their dealersh and and they were looking at us ordering post. They said, "Well, hold on a minute. You guys had a floor plan with us for 200 grand, but I'm showing that that's no longer there and you guys have already filled it up with pontoons."

So they worked to get us another 500 grand and then the rest was history. We got $14 million in inventory right now on floor plan credit. That's crazy. $14 million in credit. Yeah, it's wild. Was it like bad I mean like the relationship like oh we just gave you 200 and you worked behind the scenes to move it somewhere else?

Like was there ever any like animosity or bad blood there? No, I don't think so. in this industry, it's it's not an easy one. And we were just looking for somebody to take a chance on us. Yeah. And I think that um being just a little bit of young blood and coming up like I think this floor plan company saw that they were willing to take a chance with us.

So I don't think it created any animosity. Talk to me through the business model for anyone that doesn't know how this works. Right. So you own the property like you're paying a you have a some sort of business loan where you bought Reeder Trous. That's right. you have that you came probably with some boats or you know some accessories all that stuff but like what how does the business of marine sales in dealerships work?

Every boat dealership is a little bit different, right? Could be on the water, could not be on the water. Um, could offer storage, could not offer storage. But, uh, I would say accessories and parts is pretty common. Service uh, department is pretty common. And then sales department is almost a must.

And so, in order to have inventory, to sell inventory, you got to have money or you got to have somebody that's going to give you money. And so you've got to work on those relationships for somebody to give you money while you're building that nest egg of your own money to be able to um supply and demand that inventory whether it be parts and accessories or whether it be big serialized inventory. I mean it's just something that takes time. So you talk about you keep saying the word floor plan lender. Yeah. So that's a bank gives you money to go buy the thing so you can turn around.

I got you. So there's three parties. you as the retail sales arm. That's right. The floor plan lender. That's right.

Who's like a big bank that says for 10% or 5% or whatever it is, we'll loan you a couple hundred grand. You buy from a manufacturer at a slight I'm assuming there's like a discount or like a dealer rate or whatever. Buy it there, sell it, pay off your lender. Yep. Repeat. That's right.

Okay, that makes sense. So, year one, you bought a business that did 375. How did How did year one go for you? Year one did good. We sold the eight. Um we uh went to the dealersh uh with actual orders already in hand from customers.

Um so that was nice. So you were pre-elling stuff that you didn't. Yes. Yep. So year one we did 1. 2 million from March to December.

Yeah. You 4x Yeah. It was nuts, dude. Opportunity was there though. It was. Yeah.

And and like how were you how were you getting new customers in through the door? How were you? How did you 4x a business in one 9 months? Yeah. So, social media resilience and grit. Um, were you like dialing like, "Hey, you've bought a boat here before.

Do you want to buy a boat?" 100%. No, just you. Yes. Was Monty Is he like active in the business? Yes.

He He is uh all things service, parts, accessories. I got you. So, you're the sales side of things. Looking for a new place to call home? JC Hart Company has been helping Hoosiers find their perfect fit for 50 years. From Hamilton County to downtown Indie to Bloomington and everywhere in between, they've got over 30 communities plus seven brand new luxury spots.

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So you just start like where are you finding the list of customers? Where are you how do you know who to reach out to? We had our own customers but um in 2018 Craigslist was heavy. you know, I was putting inventory on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace. Um, you know, I had the website. Uh, you just hustling.

I was just hustling, man. And then once you sold through the ones that you had, how were you pre-selling boats you didn't own? Yeah. So, um, just from storage customers, people walking in the door, we would maybe have one or two, three boats on the showroom that hadn't sold or sold and just hadn't been picked up. We would sell off of them to go order more. So, like, hey, this one, you can't have this one, but you can have this boat.

We'll get it for you in the spring or in the winter or whatever. Yeah. Wow. So, you go from 375 to 1. 2 million. Yeah.

And then you're off to the races. That's right. And where along this journey did did you kind of be able to breathe a little bit of like, okay, I think I'm pretty decent at this this boat marine space. when I realized that I was an army of one and it was going to take an army and when I really took focus in on building a team is when we really scaled the business. So in um 2018 we hired our first employee other than the office manager. Um he's still with me today.

Um and I think by the end of 2018 we had maybe four employees. um 2019. Um I still got employees that came on in 2019 that are with me today. Um one of them now is my general manager and partner at the Rockville location. Um we had I think nine or 10 employees in 2019. How many of them are in sales?

Uh at that point, none. Just me. Oh, you were. So they were like more service and delivery like all the I was I was hiring to replace the other things that I did so I could continue to sell. Okay, that makes sense. So, you're selling, you guys start to really, I mean, crank numbers up.

Where along the journey did you decide, hey, I'm going to go in and start to talk to the place where you bought your first boat and like acquire another location. So, that was at the end of 2023. From 2018 to 2023, the one Rockville location. And at a point like Rockville, Indiana, do you feel like you start to tap out of what you can sell from Raccoon Lake? Yeah, I mean I felt like I was getting there, but um we just ran the report the other day. We we had sold to 36 states out of 50.

Um we to come to Rockville. We ship boats all over the country. We get people that come to us all over the country. We've had people fly in. We've had people Why boats are just a very unique opportunity in the sense of when you go buy a vehicle today, that vehicle that you're buying, that that GMC truck, they're going to build a million of them this year. So there's one within 20 miles in every color that you want.

The boat that we have sitting on the showroom floor, there might not actually be another one made like it because they're not mass-produced and they are handmade. So when you get something, whether it be used, whether it be new, it's unique in the sense of there's not another one out there. So if somebody's looking for something and they don't want to wait on ordering that something, they may be willing to drive. That's wild. I had no idea. I kind of thought it was just a commodity thing where it's like, you know, you serve your local area there maybe with used to people want to like drive and travel or whatever.

But 37 states, 36 36 of the 50 states have bought a boat from Rockville, Indiana. Rockville, Indiana. You start to, you know, generate some momentum. Where did the lenders and manufacturers start to take you guys seriously? I would say 2019. Um 2019 we became a top 10 dealer.

One of our manufacturers a top 10 like Yeah. Nationally or statewide? Nationally. What was the manufacturer? It's a Avalon pontoons. And there's a difference between like fishing boats, pontoons, and speed boats.

Yeah. How are you like managing you know what to stack on on the full? Yeah. So a good majority of our business is pontoons, tritons. Um we uh do sell uh fiberglass boats and then recently whenever we acquired Denny's we got into London fishing boats. Oh wow.

Okay. So they started to take you seriously in 2019 like around there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And what were the challenges you were facing as you kept grow I mean again you're you're commuting an hour and a half every day both ways.

Three hours in the car to get out to Rockville and back. You have to be there all the time. All the time. like what were these challenges that you were facing through that? I mean at some point CO happens. Yeah.

Yeah. Grow growth pains are I mean it's a real thing. Um I I would say our our biggest uh our biggest growth pains always been people and talent acquisition. Um getting people behind you and um you know being being just a you know a resilient leader. And um what were the key early hires that you had to make to continue to let you play ball when it came to selling service technicians, uh service writers, uh delivery drivers, paper pushers, I mean people in the office that that can that can get the things done that allow you to to continue doing the thing that you're good at. How were you improving the the buying experience for people for consumers at Reeder Trous?

meeting and greeting him with a smile. At that point, I mean, you didn't have to do much more but that. Um, as time has gone on, we've really dug into that. We've done a lot more, but at that point in time in our business, if you were meeting them with a smile at the door, you were probably doing 50% more than most other of your competitors. No way. Yeah.

Okay. So, then things keep going pretty well. I mean, give us how many boats did we move in 2022? So, um, so 2019 we did 4 million. Um, 2020 we did uh 8. 5 million.

Uh, 2021 we did 14 million. 2022 we did uh 19 million. And um and then 2023 we did 23 million in sales, bro. Yeah, it's been good. That's insane. Okay.

You do is that 2023? Is that before or after the acquisition? That was before. So, we started uh talking to the acquisition in December and we closed in August of 2024. So, that one took a little bit longer. That one took a little bit longer.

And what like I mean you got a good thing going. It's like, hey, don't rock literally don't rock the boat. Don't rock the boat. Don't rock the boat, but you rock the boat. What What got you into wanting to go and and bring Denny's into the fold? Uh growth.

Um you know, where do we go from here? I've got people uh on my team that um wanted opportunity. I've got people um out in, you know, out in the real world that I'd like to bring in that aren't willing to drive an hour and a half. Um you know, just uh a bigger vision, you know, um there's there's more to life than a boat dealership in Rockville, Indiana. And um you know, I just wanted to expand on that. This wasn't the same like they were doing more volume at Denny's.

Like were had you surpassed them? Were you guys bigger than them at that point? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. We were doing twice as much business. Okay. So, you're But that's still a decent acquisition to go in and make. Take us through like the the process of making an acquisition and how do I get that to the finish line. Man, I'll tell you the hardest thing is keeping it a secret, right?

Because that when that comes out, um, you know, you've got manufacturers that may say, "Well, we've been thinking about doing business elsewhere and we don't know these guys in Rockville." And you may lose a a manufacturer. Um, you've got employees that have been there for 15, 20, 25 years that may say, "I loved working for these guys, but I don't know what those guys are going to be like. I'm going to take off." Um, and all while it may not even come to fruition, right? So, the last thing you want to do is start talking about the thing.

That never happens. Yeah. And so keeping that a secret that whole time all the way up until 30 60 days of closing before you could, you know, had to sit across people that you love and trust the most would say, "Hey, before I can talk about this sign here and um so that that was probably the one of the most difficult things. Um you know, other than that, it was just, you know, dotting eyes, crossing tees, making sure that we do it right. It's a big purchase. Um and then just putting it all out on the line because it is a purchase.

It's a big purchase. Um so that's what it took. I mean it it it took everything. How did you communicate to the new team that you're kind of folding under? Like how many employees were you bringing into the fold? When you say bringing them into the fold, are you talking about employees that I was acquiring or employees that you were bringing from from the acquisition through Denny's?

Yeah. So I was getting 11. 11. So you have 11 families, 11 people that have to know, like, and trust you and they don't know you at all. So how do you like what was the first conversation you have with the entire team? Yeah.

Yeah. So, we went over there, I think it was on a Monday, um, introduced ourselves and then we brought every single one of them in one by one and got to know them, introduced ourselves. Um, let them know what is to be expected of changes that are going to happen. Um, what's not going to change that they don't have to worry about, gave them our cell phone number. Hey, you're going to have more questions. You're going to get home.

Your wife, your husband is going to pepper you with questions. Just call me. Whatever you're worried about, call me. We'll we'll we'll talk through it. So there was a lot of conversations through that. A lot of them came out and visited Rockville to to see, you know, how we operate, talk to our employees out there.

Hey, you know what, you know, how's this work out here and how is it working for these people? And and we just we're an open book, so you know, we opened it up and but the other piece is things can't stay entirely the same. That's right. you know, like you're bringing a new thing and it's like, well, hey, we went from 375 to doubling you guys up in a matter of, you know, 5 6 8 years, whatever it was. And, you know, some things will stay the same, but there are going to be changes and you kind of have to get on the boat if you're going to be a we keep using boat analogies. I love it.

Right. So, like, was that wellreceived? You know, like was it kind of like you're telling them how it is? I think that's a big piece of that leaders that are listening are like, you know, new employees or you get thrown into that leadership role and you're kind of like steering this thing like I don't know how did you guys balance that and and how how did it go for you? Yeah, I mean I think it went pretty well. I mean I think the biggest thing is just sharing your vision and letting them know what's going to happen the moment that you know what's going to happen.

Yeah. And nobody likes a secret, right? And um people have livelihoods. They want to know what's going on. And so sharing that with them, keeping everything as simple and same as it was before for for as long as you can while you're making that transition, I think is really helps through that. But today, a year and what's it been going up on two years in that acquisition?

We've got three out of 11 left. Oh, okay. So, sometimes change is hard. Change is hard. Change is hard. Yeah.

There was a um there's been a lot of change. All for the good. I mean great great change and um all those people were great. Uh they still are great and um everything was you know you know and like a business a business that is maintaining like there are people that love that. It's like I don't want it to be any different. Like I like getting in at the time I get in and leaving at the time I get in and we do the same amount.

Paycheck comes in the mail like we're chilling. Yeah. And when you are like hey we want to keep building and growing and expanding. We have a bigger vision. some sometimes self-identifying that like hey you're you're like 63 and you're like dude you know going out I love that you're young and hungry and want to go like that's probably not for me and like maybe you selfidentify out of that makes sense okay I'm following so you're two years into it how have you helped you know grow that like what have been the I mean now you're a little bit closer to a big metropolitan right I mean if you're getting people to fly all over the country to go to Rockville to you know buy a boat there. I feel like it has to be semi easier to get people to come from the it's like on the southwest side of Indie.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, what's funny about that is um we're going on three months, I believe. Rockville has beat Indie in sales and uh revenue. So, um what's the secret?

We've got a great team. I mean, we've got a great team at both both places. Um I would say a little bit more seasoned. Um, we've got 32 employees at our indie location now. And, um, as I said, when we took over 2 years ago, there was 11. And so, there's been a lot of talent acquisition.

And so, it's a lot of new people. And, um, when you think about it, the most uh, most senior somebody could be there is under two years because that's how long we've uh, owned the place. Yeah. So, um I would say just a lot of new people finding their way and it's like so it's literally like sports. It's seasons. That's right.

You know, it's not like you you can get better, but you only go through so many marches. You only go through two march one march a year. Yeah. You know, and like that's your busy time. You only go through kind of like end of season once a year, you know? It's a So, it's tough to know.

Okay, we're implementing these changes. Are they making an impact? It's like, well, we got to we got to wait till March to find out. We got to wait till April to find out when people are buying a lot of boats. That's right. So, it's like taking the principles, but it's like you can't implement your April principle in October.

Not even close. Right. It's like people just aren't that I feel like it'd be really hard. People in Indiana are not that motivated to buy a boat at the end of the season, right? Is that how it goes? Um, you know, you'd be surprised.

Um, so December, we actually close for two weeks. We give everyone paid two weeks off um Christmas and New Year. So, so we shut down for two weeks. And um in December uh I believe Indie with like 14 working days, we sold 21 boats. Um and Rockville, I think it was like 16 or 17 boats and 14 working days. So I mean, you know, is it as uh busy as it is in May?

No, it's not. Um but are people still are we still moving the needle? Are people still buying boats? Yeah, absolutely. Wow. I mean, that's just the the patience for someone like that to be like, "Yeah, I'm going to buy this boat in December and I can't wait to use it in May."

There's a lot less urgency. Yeah, that's true. There's a lot less. So, you got to really like the boat or be getting a good deal or whatever it is. Yeah. Okay.

So, give us a perspective now in 2026. You've acquired a new location. You have kind of gotten them into the fold. They've tripled an employee count. You're moving a lot of boat. Like, give us a sense of where Reeder Trous is today and where you're going in the future.

Yeah, I love that question. So, as we've grown, we are seeing opportunity to really dive into other markets. Um, we will definitely be growing from other acquisitions and so stay tuned. You'll be hearing more about that. Oh boy. But I mean, when you start looking at the things that you do and the people that you do them with and the um the amount of business that you do, then you start kind of asking yourself, okay, so we buy 400 trailers a year.

Well, the people that we buy them from only make a thousand of them. So, at what point do we start building our own trailers, right? Um, you know, corporate insurance, you know, you spend $300,000 a year on insurance. Well, at what point do you just start your own insurance agency? So um when when we start looking at the other uh facets of the business and then how else can we serve our customer you know could we serve our customer better by offering them insurance while they're in getting their boat and making a seamless process. Um we've recently built a storage facility um that has 80 standalone storage units uh that for boat and RV parking.

um you know what could we do to uh make it a better experience to make it easier to do business with us with someone that you trust. That's right. See, sometimes though I think entrepreneurs can get lost in chasing too many shiny objects. That's right. What do you think about like I mean you talk about I mean I don't know. I'm not saying that you can't.

It's all figure outable. If people can figure it out, you can figure it out. But it's like selling boats is working. Yeah. You talk about then taking your attention to insurance, trailers, storage. Do you find it hard to like context switch like that?

No, because it it like I said earlier, it takes an army and I could fill this room up and many more with the army that have helped me do the things that we've done, right? This is um you know, you're interviewing one person, but I got 60 others that you could talk to that helped me do the things that have made us the people that we are today. So when we talk about another acquisition or we talk about doing this or doing that, that's not just me. That's that's my people. Like my people's like they get it done. They're great.

And um that's that's a main focus of ours is that talent acquisition and building those future leaders. What's the secret? I feel like everyone always talks about talent. It's so hard to find good people. It's so hard to train people. Like the list goes on and on and on.

I mean, you're convincing studs like absolute like, you know, great people. It's like half of them, over half of them live and work in Rockville, Indiana. Yeah. And it's like that is, you know, I I again, I love small towns. I'm from a small town. Like I shout out all love to Rockville.

But some people are just like that's is not the lifestyle that I want. Like how have you been able to attract, retain all this talent and keep a rockstar team or is it more of like finding them but then developing them? Yeah, you said it best right there. So, we we um are not out necessarily um you know recruiting studs. We're recruiting um good hardworking people and we are giving them the uh tools to become a stud. And so we um have a junior leadership program.

Uh we uh spend a lot of time and money in just building our team and you know from the ground up. Uh, so a lot of the people that are with me that um are just A players um they did not come in as an A player, but they came in with an A personality as a person and now they're an A player. What are you looking for when identifying high potential individuals to join your team? Somebody that can uh have selfm motivation, somebody that has empathy, somebody that can um be relatable and um just can meet our core standards, right? You know, punctuality, honesty, integrity, um I mean, you name it. I mean, the list goes on.

And if they can meet most of those that we can't train, then they're in. And you can figure out how to sell a boat. That's right. like you know you can figure out a service about like that those are all learned skills I would say like there's some some like soft skills that help with selling but like if you do you know the 10 core traits of just like being a an a human being an a person like a lot of that can figure itself out along the way. Absolutely. Yeah.

And I'd much rather go get a guy or a gal that has never been in a service department, that's never been in a sales department, because like you said, that's all trainable behavior, right? And it's the behaviors that we can't train that we need them to have to to start those building blocks. No bad habits. That's right. You never like you had no bad boat selling habits cuz you never sold a boat. 100%.

Right. It's like, hey, we're kind of building it while we're flying here now. J, I hope you take this in the best way possible. You seem very, very committed, dedicated, and passionate about building Reeder Trous. Yeah. Like almost a little bit like he's intense.

Like you're an intense guy when it comes to selling boats. I'm sure I am. How do you translate your intensity and your passion for selling boats to a team of people that aren't owners? It's tough. It's tough. Um, but you give them the tools and you spend the time.

And the biggest flaw that could be had that will run people off is standing over their shoulder and telling them how to do every little thing rather than showing them how to do the thing and then showing them the result that you're looking for and letting them go find their own path to get there. Is that hard? Like you know a lot of us build up we have one way to do it. Like I know how I sell a boat. I know how I make a video. I know how I do this.

Yeah. And you know, like getting because someone's learning and they're like figuring it out and it's like, "Well, you're not doing it the way I wanted to." Or like you bring someone in that's like, "Well, have you ever thought about doing it this?" It's like, "No, no, we do it this way." You know, like how do you how do you balance that? So, um, patience for one and for but you know, honestly, like I'm I'm looking for that person that says, "Hey, have you ever thought about doing it this way?"

Um, I encourage that. I want to hear that. Um, but there's a good conversation that needs to be had about um, you know, if we don't do it that way. Don't get upset and don't let it stop you from also telling me the next thing that you would do a different way cuz one of those times we may actually just go that route. Yeah. And it's like uh the ability to present ideas and it whatever one you pick it's like cool commit and go all in on that.

Like don't no ego right. It's just like, hey, whoever has the idea, whether it's you or whether it's someone else, I think that's the hard part, too, of like when you're you run a growing a rapidly growing business, it's like, dude, you done this before, right? You never acquired your third B. Like, it's like, hell, I don't know. I'm figuring it out as we go, too. Right.

Absolutely. And I think that being um upfront and like, you know, honest with people. It's like, hey, we're we're figuring it's all figure outable. Like, we're doing this. This is my reasoning as why we're doing this. But like you might have a really great idea that we can implement and start to run with.

Yeah. Are there any great ideas that that people that your employees have come to you with that have been like oh yeah I mean there's a lot for sure. Yeah. A lot of the things that we do today were not my idea, right? A lot of my ideas are long gone. Um but I'm not you know I'm there every day.

Um but I'm You still drive. Are you at one of the spots every day? Yeah. So I I I split up my time. Um I split up my time because the other piece would be it's like well do you does your crew at Rockville start to get uh salty that you know oh J's just all in Indie now like maybe at first. Um but uh like I have really good partners.

Monty's awesome. Um we spend a lot of time together but sometimes he'll be at one and I'll be at the other. Um I've got Stacy who's just a rock star. She's been with me since 2019. Um she's my general manager, my partner out in Rockville. I've got Tyler who's been with me since 2020 or 2021 who's at Indie.

He came from Rockville. Um I mean they're just I mean they're my my lefty and my right, you know what I mean? Like I couldn't do it without them. What I want to know advice for other business owners, advice for people if they're in boats, if they're not in boats, if they're in cars, if they're in media, whatever they're in. Yeah. How do you build a business that can quadruple, double, increase by significant volume every single year?

be acceptable to change and always be looking for the next thing, right? So, what you're doing now is getting the results that you're getting. So, if you want different results, you probably should start looking at doing something different. Um, other than that, man, it's a long game. So many people just give up and if you just stay in, like, you'll just outlast everyone and and if you build a team around you, then that team will figure it out. But you've got to give them the tools and you got to let them figure it out.

Like I mean that's the toughest part, right? Is let them fail. Like let them fail. You failed. You're going to fail more. Um let them fail.

They'll let them take ownership. And um they won't treat it as if it was theirs like you do because it's yours, but man, they will start owning some stuff. There's a financial component, right? Like you know, people don't go to work for free, right? You know, people people have motivations that help them get up every day, but like that's only going to take you so far. That's right.

Like paychecks get you I mean a lot of the way there, but they also have to feel like I like who I'm doing this with. I like what I'm doing. And I feel almost like challenged. Like the average human being that's like an A player wants to show up and be like mentally stimulated at work and be like, I'm solving interesting problems. I'm sometimes you're failing and other times you're winning and you're like feeling like you know that feeling when you like finish a cross word puzzle or a saduka or whatever and you're like oh yeah that's a good feeling and I feel like a lot of people want that. Yeah.

Wow. What I want to know okay we're kind of getting to the end of the show. We're going to talk all about Indiana at the end but one last question from an entrepreneurship standpoint. Where was the worst day of owning Reeder Trous? There was a day in 2018 and so we had our first employee Gavin and um I don't even remember it Thursday, Friday uh Stephanie, my office manager at the time had something going on with her son. She was gone.

Uh Monty had something prior engagement. He was gone. I was on the phone with a customer and there's customers coming in and out. The phone's ringing. Um, and at the time we were uh remodeling, putting in a parts room and um I remember I had Gavin on a ladder and he was um taking down metal walls and I was on the phone with a customer and all of a sudden I just hear screaming from Gavin and I'm like I don't think I said I got to go or nothing. I just hung up and I remember walking around the corner and I think I remember he had a cut off wheel in his hand last time I saw him and I don't hear the cut off wheel anymore and he's just screaming and so I had no idea what I was going to find when I came around that corner and you know we made we we've made no money right like I I had a really good career like I'm there every morning super early I'm staying till 8 9:00 at night and driving home I'm not eating like it's just not healthy it's just not healthy and I'm doing all the things we all were we were doing all the things.

And um I come around the corner and Gavin's laying on the ground. He's just screaming his head off and he's saying that he fell and he he did something to his his ankle or his heel. And so I call 911 and they come and follow him to to the hospital. Um and when I get there, uh they I mean he's still screaming as hell. I I just I mean there's no blood, nothing, right? And so the the doctor comes back and I'm in there with him.

holds up the uh the X-ray and I mean the dude's heel was shattered in like a hund different places like it was just nuts and I just remember thinking like people are getting hurt around me like I'm just I'm failing customers I'm failing this business like that just in my mind this place is just what was I thinking right and I don't know if that was the worst day I mean there was a lot of I mean until today there's there's really tough days um but man, you know, it's just a day and you know it's going to get better. So, it's like, I'm going to get through this one and tomorrow's going to be better. And if tomorrow's worse, then the day after that'll actually get better. And if you just have that mindset and you don't give up, man, I'm telling you, you will you will and you know you're working hard and you know you're doing all the things, you will find success. Relentless optimism, right? Like just relentless optimism.

Like even if today is worse than yesterday, like tomorrow, whatever the tomorrow is, like keep and you got to work to make it better. And there's that feeling like the only you know. Yeah. Like when you look in the mirror, you'll know if you're giving it everything you have and you'll know the days that you aren't. And it's like and if you didn't give it all today and you came up short in a few places, figure out how to do it tomorrow. That's right.

And it's like, yeah, you're right. the ones that give up. Like success finds its way to winners and winners find their way to success. Like and it's one of those things where it's like you won't and even like the most successful people probably don't feel that successful. Yeah. And it's like, you know, you're figuring out one you have to do like the self-evaluation of like what do you really enjoy?

You know, how's your perspective on, you know, what success looks like? Has it changed over the years? Yeah, I think when I was, you know, 19, 20, um, I was chasing money. I mean, you even said it earlier like you got into a lot of the stuff cuz you liked nice things and there's nothing wrong with liking nice things, but I think that once, you know, they always talk about like the amount of money that you can make in a year and like your happiness doesn't really change much after that. And it's like I feel like age and time gives people perspective. Yeah.

How has your perspective changed? Yeah. So, my perspective's changed three times. Okay. And so, um, there was a point in my life where it was money and I was chasing money 100%. And that's just what I want because I like nice things, just like I said, just like you said.

And, um, and then that moved over to like, okay, so I'm making pretty good money. Like, I just want to be number one. Like, I want to win. And so, I was willing to do just what it took to be number one. And then that changed somewhere in the past few years to where I want to build people and watch them succeed. And so if success to them is money, if success to them is nice things, if success to them is winning, like I just want to watch them win.

I want to watch them make good money. Like I love there's nothing more I love whenever one of my people, you know, have some big accomplishment, right? They get an award or they get a bonus or they go buy a house or they get married, right? Like I just that's what success and winning is for me. So the more people on my team that I can see succeed and whatever they feel like success is, like that's success for me. I love that, dude.

Incredible. That's a perfect place to put a pin in it on the entrepreneurship stuff. That is just like an awesome journey. Uh, and I'm excited to see what the future holds for Rita Trous. I think that you your passion and your intensity when it comes to boats is it's unmatched, dude. I love it.

Uh, this next question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejart. com. So, my question for you, J, why do you call Indiana home? Cuz I was born here.

But I mean like once you start go the boat business probably be a little bit easier in Florida. Yeah. You know like Well I mean you could see it that way or you know um I fight that argument often because I built one heck of a business in Rockville, Indiana and you know in Florida there's boat dealerships on top of each other down there. Um but uh no I mean I love Indiana. I love the weather. I love the fall.

I love the spring. Um that's a lot coming from a guy in the boat. Like you like you like it when it gets to the out of season like that. And I love when it's really hot, too, right? Amen. So, um not so much when it's cold, but you know, Indiana's home for me.

Um because of the people. I mean, really truly Hoosers are just a different, you know, walk of life. Um I've been to many places all over the country, all over the world, and there's uh there's not a lot of places that you'll go that people will hold the gas station door open for you. And um somebody brought that to my attention. uh they were in town visiting. It was a supplier or something.

I don't I don't remember. And and he said, you know, uh he was from Cleveland, Ohio. And he said, "I don't think I've ever been somewhere where everybody holds the door open for you." And I said, "Yeah, cuz it's a you're in Indiana, baby. Is country. Who's your hospitality?"

That's right. Come on. All right. Next question. What is your favorite Indiana memory? Answer might have been different several weeks ago.

Um, but today it's the 50th anniversary of the Indie Mini that I just ran. Yeah, that was probably the best memory. Um, and it's, you know, it's a week old, so I I pretty vividly. Um but uh yeah, I mean it was just the adrenaline and you know the discipline it took to get there and all the things but the memory of being there running through you know running around the track you know kissing the bricks you know the the bands playing and everyone cheering you on. Um I mean that's a memory that I will not ever forget. That's that's a hype one for sure.

I love that. Okay, two questions left for you. This is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? In Rockville, Indiana. And um it's called The Ranch.

And it's just like this really neat restaurant bar. Like it's like super nice. It's like marble cut floors. Like the decor is really cool. The food's amazing. They've got like all these drink specials.

Like you've got to go out there and check it out. The ranch. It's called The Ranch. It's like really really cool. the ranch in Rockville, Indiana. I'm I'm all in on that.

It's right across the street from the state park at Raccoon. Um and it is like my favorite non-stakhouse restaurant. Dude, it's fire. Like it is amazing. Like when you come out and visit, like we're going to lunch there. Like you're going to love it.

Yeah. The The Ranch is a swanky, quaint cafe featuring a full espresso bar, zesty fair, fun, fresh sandwiches, wraps, and paninis without the deep fried foods or greasy cheeseburgers. Yeah. Specialty cocktails. Oh, let's go. Yeah.

No. No fryer in the whole place. Come on. Which like in smalltown Indiana is surprising. It's Ty. I love it.

The ranch. Okay. Finally, this is where we source new guest ideas and hear about other people that are doing incredible things. Who's a Hooser we need to keep on our radar? someone who's doing big things. Well, if you can get him here, let's get Kurt Signetti here.

Let's go, dude. The ultimate new Hooser. Like, you talk about like increasing increasing the community of Indiana. That guy's crazy. He's awesome. That that's that guy is uh a leader that I would strive I do strive to be.

Yeah. You talk about building high performing teams, taking like a bunch of spare parts and misfit toys and putting them together into Nothing excites them. Nothing excites them. I mean, dude, like they could get, you know, um they could get tackled, you know, 20 yards back or they could score a touchdown and get the extra points and the dude is just even kill. Yeah. Steady Eddie.

Steady Eddie. I love it, dude. J, it's been a pleasure to have you in the studio hearing all about Reeder Trous Marine and what you guys have built. It's it's an incredible story and I think that it goes out there like you talk about being young and setting yourself up to go out and win. Like I just think the idea of going from high school dropout to running a company with you know tons of employees doubling quadrupling like you know the diplomas and the this and the that like that doesn't make who someone is but it's like the sum of the work right it's like are you willing to do the things to get you where you want to go if you're do you said it earlier if you're doing the same things you're going to get the same results and clearly dude you went on work ethic like that's I think bottom line if we were giving advice to the entrepreneurs out there listening, the way to win is just by outlasting.

Just work. Just work. That's right. I love it, man. Thanks for stopping by and we'll talk to you soon. Yeah, man.

Thanks. Appreciate it. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great.

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